Thursday, March 28, 6:00 p.m.
“Combative, entropic, mesmerizing.” —Melissa Anderson, 4Columns
Lizzie Borden’s daring first feature is a shapeshifting portrait of a women’s collective and the slippery relationship between a filmmaker and her subjects. When the collective breaks down, the film similarly fragments, with the introduction of fictional characters, disjunctive sounds and images, and multi-textual observations by artists outside the group, including Joan Jonas, Barbara Kruger, Nancy Holt, and Kathryn Bigelow, resulting in a rich and complicated depiction of 1970s feminism. The collective protested Borden’s final cut after Regrouping’s 1976 premiere and Borden shelved the film for many years. Now, with the participants’ permission, it is circulating once more in a restoration by Anthology Film Archives.
Lizzie Borden, 1976, USA, 80 minutes
In English / Format: 16mm
Restored by Anthology Film Archives and The Film Foundation with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation
Presented in partnership with the Gene Siskel Film Center; the University of Illinois Chicago’s (UIC) College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts; and UIC’s Department of Gender and Women’s Studies.
About the artist
Lizzie Borden is a writer, director, editor, and script consultant. Her 1983 film Born in Flames, named one of “The 50 Most Important Independent Films” by Filmmaker Magazine, has been shown at countless festivals and theaters around the world. It has been taught and written about extensively since its 1983 premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2016, when the film was restored by Anthology Film Archives, New Yorker critic Richard Brody called it “a feminist masterpiece.” Borden also wrote, directed, and produced the controversial independent fiction film Working Girls, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight, won a US Dramatic Special Jury Recognition at the Sundance Film Festival, and was restored by the Criterion Collection in 2021. Borden’s long-unseen 1976 film Regrouping was restored by Anthology Film Archives in 2023.
Accessibility
CATE events are presented with real-time captions (CART). Hearing loops, wheelchair accessibility, and companion seating are also available at the Gene Siskel Film Center. For other accessibility requests, please visit saic.edu/access or write cate@saic.edu.